Bowling ball attachment



Patented Mar. 28, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BOWLING BALL ATTACHMENT Chester.M. MacChesney, Chicago, Ill.

Application June 3, 1942, Serial No. 445,550

I (Cl. 273-64) 4 Claims.

This invention Yrelates to improvements in bowling ball attachments, and to the combination of such an attachment with a bowling ball, and its purpose is to provide an improved device for holding a bowling ball during the act of bowling without the necessity of inserting the thumb and fingers in the holes which are usually provided for this purpose. The present invention is an improvement upon that `described and claimed in my vprior United States'Letters Patent No. 2,147,907, dated February 2l, 1939.

In said Letters Patent there is disclosed a bowling ball attachment comprising a handle and one or more pneumatic devices by which the ball is gripped and held until released by the bowler. In the preferred embodiment, the attachment comprises a handle and one or more suction .cups formed of rubber or the like and adapted to be pressed against .the spherical surface of the .ball to hold the ball by atmospheric pressure until the suction is relieved bythe action of the bowler vat the desired point in the swing or delivery of the ball. By the use oi that invention it was possible to eliminate the usual holes in the bowling ball, thus bringing about a better balance of the ball and a saving ,in the cost of the manufacture thereof, while at the same time removing one Vof the most objectionable features of the sport of bowling, namely, the tendency of the iingers of the ybowler to lbecome .sore and tender from frictional contact with the edges of the holes in the bowling ball. That bowling ,ball attachment has proven to be very efficient and satisfactory in use.

'Thevprincipal object .of the present invention is to provide an improved bowling ball attachment of the type referred to in which the handle and one or more attached suction cups are formed as one integral member by a lprocess of molding va flexible ,plastic material, such as Vinylite, which has sufficient iiexib'ility and resiliency to permit the suction cups to be pressed into gripping engagement `with the ball and sufficient hardness and stiffness to permit the formation of a handle having the necessary rigidity. It has been found that flexible plastic materials of this type may be molded and the desired air passages therethrough formed with the use of cores f fragile material which may be broken up and removed after the molding operation is completed and the product sufficiently hardened. 'I'his integral .bowling ball attachment, .thus formed, has the advantage that .it may be very economically and quickly formed and, in addition, 4the further advantages of durability in use and freedom from air leakage which enable it to be used for long periods of time and without danger of unintentional release of the ball at improper times. These and other features and advantages of the invention will appear more fully hereinafter.

The nature of the invention will 'be understood vfrom the following specification takenl with the accompanying drawing 'in which one embodiment is illustrated. In the drawing,

Figure l shows a side elevation" of a bowling ball and of the improved attachment of `the present invention illustrated in operative relation thereto while being held 'by the 'hand of a bowler;

Fig. 2 shows a top plan view of the structure illustrated 'in Fig. l;

Fig. 3 shows a sectional View taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2; v

Fig. 4 shows an end elevation of the bowling ballattachment illustrated in Figs. l and 2, looking toward the right as viewed in Fig. l; and

Fig. 5 shows a bottom plan view of one of the suction cups, illustrating the check valve which is preferably employed in the bottom of each cup.

As illustrated in the drawing, the invention is embodied in an attachment I 0 illustrated as being employed with a spherical bowling ball I I, which may be of the usual weight and formed of the usual material, preferably without the provision of the usual holes for engagement by the fingers of the bowler. The attachment ID comprises a handle I2 adapted to be gripped by the'hand I3 of the bowler and this handle comprises two integrally formed downwardly extending armsl I4, each of which is, in turn, formed integrally with one of the two Suction cups I5. The cups I5 are formed with their external surfaces in the shape of cones and the arms I4 are turned inwardly toward each other at their lower ends so that the axes of the two cups converge toward the center of the ball when the device is applied thereto.

The cups I5 are concaved on their inner faces to form surfaces I5a which have the form of lsegments of identical .spherical surfaces formed with a substantially lesser radius than that of the ball II. These two cavities in the cups I5 are connected through the handle I2, the arms I4 and the top portions of the cups I5 by a continuous ,passage I6 which is preferably centrally located in these members. At one end of' the handle, the passage I6 communicates with a branch passage I'I which extends through a laterally projecting thumb-,piece I8 formed integrally with the handle, the passage ,I'I opening to the atmosphere through a port I 9 positioned on the upper surface of the handle so that it may normally and conveniently be closed by the thumb I3a of the bowler. Of course, the direction in whichthe thumb-piece extends will depend on whether the bowler is right-handed or left-handed. The cups I5 have their outer conical `surfaces Ib so .shaped that the walls .of .the `cups decrease in thickness toward their outer annular edges where their inner and outer surfaces are separated by annular end surfaces I5c located in planes extending at right angles to the axes of their respective cups.

With this formation of the attachment I0, its handle I2 may be seized by the hand of the user who will place his thumb over the port I9 and then press the cups I5 downwardly against the surface of the ball. This will result in flattening the oups against the kball and expelling the air therefrom around the edges of the oups with the result that partial vacuums are formed within the cups and their inner surfaces conform more or less to the curvature of the ball. The ball is then ilrmly gripped by suction and will continue to be held until the partial vacuum within the cups is relieved by removing the thumb from the port I9 and thereby admitting air at atmospheric pressure to the interiors of the cups.

In order to prevent the rarefled air in the device from surging back and forth from one cup I5 to the other through the passage I6, when the cups are applied to the ball, which might result in an increase of the pressure in one cup and a further rarecation of the air in the other, to such an extent to cause one cup and then the other to be released from the ball under extreme conditions, the cups are preferably provided with central circular recesses I5d which are concentric with the mouths of the passages I6 and with the axes of the cups, and these recesses are occupied Yby check valves 20 formed preferably of rubber or other flexible resilient material. Each check valve is in the form of a iiat disk adapted to iit within the recess I5d and thickened at its outer edge, as shown at 20a, to form an annular upwardly extending stiiTening rib and the outer margin of each recess is correspondingly increased indepth by providing an annular channel adapted to receive the rib. Each recess is further provided around its edge with an annular flange I5 which extends inwardly beneath the disk 2!! to define an opening I5f which is less than the diameter of the disk. Each disk 20 is provided with an annular series of holesv 20b spaced outwardly from the axis of the disk but within the opening I5f. These holes 20b are normally closed more or less tightly by reason of the fact that the disks seat against the top walls I5*I of the recesses but when partial vacuums have been formed in the cups by pressing them against the ball with the thumb on the port I 9, the subsequent removal of the thumb will admit atmospheric pressure to the passages I6 and I1 and thus cause the resilient disks 20 to be stretched and bowed downwardly to a suiiicient extent to admit the atmospheric air Vthrough the holes 2t!h and thus relieve the partial Vacuum in each cup. As long as the thumb is retained n the port I9, the disks 20 remain on their seats and thus prevent any surging of the rarefed air from one cup to the other during the act of bowling. The disks 20 may be readily snapped into place in the recess I5d and may be conveniently removed when desired.

:All parts of the attachment I 0 described above, except the check valves 2D which are preferably employed, are formed as one integral structure and this structure is preferably formed by molding it of a resilient flexible plastic material such as Vinylite. which may readily be molded in lthe fluid state and which has suilicient flexibility and resiliency to permit the cups I to be flattened suciently to grip the ball while retaining the capacity to return to their normal shapes when they are released from the ball. 'Ihe passages I6 and I I and the recesses I 5d may be formed by fragile core material which may be broken and removed after the molding operation has been completed and the product hardened. The rubber disks 20 may then be snapped into place to cornplete the device which is then very rugged and somewhat resilient and flexible, particularly in the thinner portions of the cups I5.

In the use of the invention the bowler presses the attachment Il) downwardly upon the ball, with his thumb closing the port I9, until the cups I5 iiatten out suiiiciently to grip the ball. The attachment with the ball suspended therefrom is then carried to the alley and' the ball is delivered by swinging it in the usual manner while retaining the thumb on the port I9. At the desired point in the swing the thumb is lifted, thereby admitting atmospheric air to the cups I5 and releasing the ball onto the alley.

Although one form of the invention has been shown and described by Way of illustration, it will be understood that it may be constructed in various other embodiments coming within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

l. An attachment for a bowling ball comprising a handle connected at its ends with a pair of suction cups adapted to be pressed against said ball, said handle and said cups being formed integrally of molded plastic resilient material and having air passages therethrough communicating with said cups and provided with a port opening to the atmosphere, and check valves mounted in said cups to control the flow of air through said passages.

2. An attachment for a bowling ball comprising a handle connected at its ends with a pair ofsuction cups adapted to be pressed against said ball, said handle and said cups being formed integrally of resilient molded material and being provided With a passage forming a communication between said cups and with another passage forming a communication between said rstnamed passage and the atmosphere, said cups having recesses therein at the mouths of said rst-mentioned passage, and valve members mounted in said recesses.

3. An attachment for a bowling ball comprising a handle connected at its ends with a pair of suction cups adapted to be pressed against said ball, said handle and said cups being formed integrally of resilient molded material and being provided with a passage forming a communication between said cups and with another passage forming a communication between said first-named passage and the atmosphere, said cups having recesses therein at the mouths of said first-mentioned passage, and flexible resilient disks mounted in said recesses and having apertures therethrough displaced from the mouths of said iirst-mentioned passage.

4. An attachment for a bowling ball compris- Aing a rigid handle connected at its ends with a 

